Time to Celebrate (the rewrite)
by Trueheart Zen
Summary: Voldemort has been defeated, but no one seems to be acting that way. All Hermione wants is a bit of celebration, and starting a new relationship with Fred seems to be a good start, but when the Ministry of Magic reinstates the marriage law, she gets far more than she bargained for.
1. The Enchanted Library

**AN: So recently I got super nostalgic and reread Time to Celebrate, and while I was proud of the story when I finished it, I'm coming to town terms with the fact that it could have used a bit of editing. So, it's getting a full rewrite. The plot will remain, for the most part, the same, but judging from just the edits to this chapter, there's a quite a bit to be added and changed, so if you liked the old Celebrate, I hope you'll like this one just as much, if not more.**

 **For all my new readers, welcome! I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it. If the suspense from this first chapter proves to be too much for you, I wouldn't judge you for reading the original, as I intend to keep it on the site at least until this is finished, but I would also recommend waiting, because the rewrite will be a bit more enjoyable (in my opinion, anyway).**

 **One last thing. This is an AU where Fred lives through the battle of Hogwarts, but Ron does not. Equivalent exchange, after all.**

* * *

Chapter 1 – The Enchanted Library

It had been three months since the last of the funerals following the Battle of Hogwarts, and spirits were still low in the Weasley household. The twins, usually lively on even the most mournful of occasions found themselves struggling to smile, and not even the ghoul that lived in the attic seemed to have the energy to break the suffocating solemnity.

Harry and Hermione, who had been living at the burrow until they found a place of their own, were in the lowest spirits of all. Since going from the golden trio to the golden duo, they didn't feel quite so golden anymore. Harry had taken to sleeping most of the day, which Ginny did her best to keep him from, but their relationship, which had never been a strong one, was failing faster because of it.

Hermione did what she did best, she read. Having set up camp in a large armchair in the living room, she could be found there at most any hour of the day or night, surrounded by stacks of books. If she wasn't reading, she was being dragged to the kitchen by Mrs. Weasley to make her eat something, or she had fallen asleep in her chair. Fred had taken to carrying her to her room when she did so, sometimes hanging out in the kitchen after getting back from the shop with George if she happened to still be awake when they returned.

It wasn't much, but he had convinced himself it was helping. But if things didn't start to change for the better, Fred wasn't sure how much more of this any of them could take.

"Ginny, will you please wake up Harry for breakfast?" Mrs. Weasley asked her daughter as the twins set the table.

"I don't know if that's a good idea.." Ginny said nervously. Their shouting match two days prior had scared all the gnomes from the garden.

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Fred, George, will you go get Harry and Hermione?"

"Of course, Mum." George replied, passing the dishes off to their sister.

After a quick pair of rock, paper, scissors to see who was tasked with awakening Harry, George headed upstairs, while Fred stepped into the living room.

"Hermione, it's time for breakfast." Fred said softly, having braved the labyrinth of books beside her chair.

"Mhm, after this chapter." She replied absentmindedly, without looking up from her page.

"I'll wait then." He replied, perching on the arm of the chair.

She looked up at him. "You don't have to do that."

"Am I bothering you?"

She paused. "I haven't decided yet."

"Let me know when you do then." He replied, adjusting his position to a less precarious one. Stealing a glance at her page as she looked back down, he read a few lines about floating down a river in an apple barrel, which didn't seem like a good method of travel by any means.

She turned the page and read a bit more before looking back up. "Do you know of any more nearby libraries, I've cleared out all the ones I know about."

"I know of a few." He replied, knowing just the perfect place. "George and I have been kicked out of all the nearby ones."

Hermione chuckled. "Of course you have. Would you mind taking me?"

"You want me to go with you?"

"Well, if you promise not to get me kicked out."

"You drive a hard bargain, but I think I can manage that."

"I'm sure it'll be very difficult for you."

A commotion from upstairs involving a loud crack and an impressive stream of curse words diverted their attention.

"Looks like Harry is awake." Hermione stated sullenly, before returning to her book.

Fred looked towards the sound of stomping to see Harry storm down the stairs. George, following after, shot his twin an irritable look, getting an apologetic one in response before Fred turned his attentions back to Hermione, who had just closed her book and gotten up to join everyone in the kitchen.

Breakfast was a stressful affair, to say the least. Harry snapped at everyone who tried to make conversation with him, especially Ginny, who seemed near about in tears already. Fred clenched his fists, catching a knowing look from his twin who was almost as ready to pummel Harry as he was. Even if he was in mourning, enough was enough.

"Sooo… What is everyone's plans for the day?" Mr. Weasley asked with some amount of cheer.

"We decided to close the shop and take the day off." George said. "I might go in to work on inventory though."

"I'm going to the library with Hermione for a bit." Fred said, and Hermione nodded her agreement.

"Well that's nice." Mrs. Weasley said, smiling at the hope that at least half of the duo was breaking out of their solitary ways. "You two have fun. And don't get kicked out of this one." She warned.

"Fred has given me his word not to ruin my library experience." Hermione replied with a small smile.

"He better keep that word too." His mother threatened needlessly. Fred had no intention of ruining their library trip, after all.

* * *

"You are obsessed." George said as they both got dressed.

"What do you mean?" Fred asked, looking up from his sock hunt. A bottle of green ink had burst in the drawer, and Fred vowed for neither the first nor the last time to be more organized.

"Since when do you spend fifteen minutes deciding what to wear? You're going to the library, not getting married." While it was true he had debated between two different shirts, it was mostly figuring out which one was clean.

"I hope I would spend more that fifteen minutes deciding if I were getting married." Fred said as he finally found a pair of socks that seemed to have avoided the worst of the ink.

"That's not my point."

"What is your point?" Fred asked, knowing he would regret it.

"How late were you up last night waiting for her to fall asleep?"

"Not too long, I had a few cookies, filled out our tax paperwork for this month-"

George plopped down on his bed and gave Fred a pointed look.

"I know… I know. But wouldn't it be weird to ask her out right now. I mean-" This was getting ridiculous. "What do you think?" He asked, sitting down next to him.

"I think you sound like a first year with their first crush."

He gave his twin a shove. "Like you weren't the same way about Seamus?" They had been together for more than a year now, and they were so good for each other it was maddening sometimes.

"Yes my brother, but you're an important detail." George replied, shoving him back.

"Enlighten me."

"We actually got together."

"Hardly fair. She's spent the last year trying to kill you-know-who."

"And you've spent the last, hmm, three at least pining over her."

"Fine. I'll ask her out. But when she turns me down, you get to be the guinea pig for our next product."

"Oh yea of little faith, I'll take your bet. But since next time is your turn anyway, you have to test the next three, and do our next publicity stunt."

"That's hardly fair."

"You're the one that seems to sure she'll reject you. What do you have to lose?"

A lot of things. His dignity, his friendship with Hermione.. but he wasn't one to stand down from a bet. "Fine, I'll do it." He had an awful lot to gain, after all, if she did say agree. Assuming he survived whatever George was planning for the next publicity stunt, anyway.

* * *

"How have I never been here before?" Hermione grinned as they walked through the labyrinth of a library. She felt like she could spend days wandering and never pass the same shelf twice.

Fred shrugged. "I had been meaning to tell you about it for a while. It's George and my favorite because the enchantments on the place keep us from bothering anybody."

"What kind of enchantments?" She asked, even more in awe.

"I'm not sure, but we do know we can have a screaming match from opposite ends of the place, but no one will hear us but each other."

"Sounds like a modified anti-eavesdropping charm." Hermione mused. "That has to be really useful."

Fred nodded. "George and I have been trying to figure out exactly how it works, but we haven't had much time."

"Something new for the shop?" She asked. Those two never seemed to quit inventing, it was admirable, really.

"Something like that."

Hermione pulled out her wand. She was always up for a challenge, after all. "Maybe I can help."

After a few hours of trying to figure things out, even Hermione's dedication was starting to falter. She collapsed into a bean bag chair in a reading corner, and Fred sat next to her, taking the larger bean bag chair that she had passed on.

"This place is an enigma." She said, looking up at the stained glass window, casting colored light down on them. "It's incredible, and I haven't even looked at any of the books yet."

"Would you like to look for a little while?" He asked, afraid to even imagine the stacks they were going to walk out of here with.

Hermione paused, her smile furrowing into a pensive frown. "Honestly, no. All I've done is read lately. It's gotten to the point that I can't even remember going to bed."

He felt his cheeks get a little warm. "Actually … that's because you fall asleep in your chair."

"I do? Then how do I – thanks Fred."

Fred smiled. "You're welcome."

"How long had you been doing this?"

"Since you started falling asleep while reading."

"I wondered what you were always doing in the kitchen at such odd hours."

"You weren't always asleep when I got home at night."

"Fred, you didn't need to-" She blushed. "Sorry I kept you up so late. If I had known I was keeping you up I would have gone to bed myself."

"It's alright." He shrugged. "I just wanted to help, and that seemed like the least I could do."

"Harry and I have been impossible lately, haven't we?"

"Harry has been impossible. If he keeps making my sister cry, I might actually have to kill him."

Hermione was taken aback by his statement. "I didn't know you cared so much."

"She's a pain in the arse, but she's still my sister."

"I'll talk to him." Hermione said. "He might listen to me."

"I think you're the only one he'll listen to right now."

Hermione nodded. "Do you want to go back now? I don't want to check anything out."

"It's about lunchtime. Do you want to get something to eat first? There's a little café around the corner that makes an amazing chowder, and doesn't mind if we get a little rowdy every once in a while."

Hermione knew they were rowdy more than every once in a while, but she didn't say that. "That sounds really nice." She replied instead.

* * *

"So what is it like, having a twin?" Hermione asked between bites of her sandwich.

He wished he had a sickle for every time he had been asked that question. "I don't know, it feels natural to me. What's it like not having a twin?"

"I have to find a partner in crime that isn't identical to me, I suppose."

"That sounds awful. What do you do when you don't want to do something and you don't have a copy that's willing?"

"Polyjuice potion, of course. How often do you and George trade places, anyway?"

"Fred and me, you mean?"

"Nice try Fred, but you're not completely identical, you know." Could she actually tell them apart?

"How so?" He asked, forgetting about the ear thing, once again. It had foiled their plans more than once.

"Hmm. For starters, George is a little taller than you."

"I am not the shorter one."

"Keep telling yourself that." Hermione replied before taking a sip of her drink.

"Okay, fine. He had like, half an inch on me. Just don't tell anyone else."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"So do you want to do anything after this, or do you have a hot date you haven't told anyone about?"

"I've been a little lacking in the hot date department lately, so we can return to the Burrow whenever you're ready. I suppose you'd like to do inventory with George for a while though, so I don't mind heading back alone."

"No, that's not what I meant." Fred replied, suddenly feeling a little nervous. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't getting tired of me." Something about her always seemed to melt his confidence, no wonder George teased him so mercilessly.

"I don't think I could get tired of you."

He didn't expect that, considering how much he and his twin seemed to get on her nerves when they were in school. Of course, things had changed since then. "Would you want to do this more often then?"

"Fred Weasley, are you asking me out?"

Was he? Was he actually doing this. "Well, since we both seem to be lacking in the hot date department, I figured it was worth a shot."

Hermione's smile turned stern. "If this is your idea of a prank, it's really not funny."

She thought he was kidding. Of course she thought he was kidding, this whole idea was a joke. The idea of her having any sort of interest in him was beyond ridiculous.

He could feel his heart hammering in his chest. "It's not, honest. But. You can forget I asked, if you want. I'm sorry."

"Wait. You're actually being serious?"

"Do you really think I'd joke about something like that?"

She was pensive for a moment. "No. You wouldn't, I'm sorry. Ask again, if you want. Or not, I'm an idiot."

"The last thing I would call you is an idiot." He replied. "Well, maybe if you do agree to go out with me." Since when was he so self-depreciating? He wasn't too keen on losing any bet with George, after all, but this one he stood to win more by losing.

"Where's that charming confidence that I'm used to?" She teased.

"You think I'm charming?"

She flushed bright red. "I didn't say that." Merlin, she was cute.

"I think you did. Charmingly confident, huh?"

"Oh, now you're just being mean. Are you going to ask me out or not?"

"Hmm.." He smirked, taking a long sip of his soda.

She squirmed a little in her seat. "Fred, come on."

"Well now that I know you're going to say yes, I have to think of the best way to ask for when you tell all your friends about it later."

"My best friend is Ginny, I think it's better for the both of us if you don't ask in a romantic fashion."

"Well in that case." He mused, pausing for effect. "Hermione, would you like to go out with me sometime?"

"Hmm.." She replied with a devious grin.

"Don't tell me you've changed your mind in the last five minutes."

"Well, maybe it would be nice if you asked in stunningly romantic fashion.."

"You're joking."

"Of course I am. And I'd love to go out with you sometime."

His grin had to be at least a kilometer wide. "I knew you couldn't resist someone as charming as me."

She giggled. "I wouldn't push your luck."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He winked.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed! Please be sure to review and tell me what you think!**

 **\- Zen (and Sirius)**


	2. The Missing Wand

**AN: Editing is harder than I thought, but I will persevere. I meant to have the second chapter done before I spent a week in Michigan without my laptop, but I'm back now and tan so that's what matters. :)**

* * *

Chapter 2 – The Missing Wand

"I didn't think you had it in you." George said when his twin told him the news. "I thought you were going to pine over her forever."

"I would have bucked up the courage eventually" Fred defended as he undressed for bed.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night. You'll need all the help you can get after our next publicity stunt."

"Do your worst." He scoffed. "Why were you are you so obsessed with my love life lately, anyway?"

"Can't a guy help his brother lose the lost puppy act out of the goodness of his heart?"

"Any brother but you." He threw a pillow at him.

"You're breaking my heart, bro." George threw it back. "Maybe I just didn't want to see you die a virgin."

"So you sent me after Granger?"

"Don't you know to always watch out for the quiet ones?"

"Like you would know, shagging a guy with an explosions fetish." He teased. Seamus was by no means one of the quiet ones.

"A guy gets lonely and pleasures himself with a rocket one time, and everyone wants to call him a fetishist."

"Merlin, George, you sure know how to pick them." He tossed the pillow back at his brother, hard.

"What can I say, he's cute and knows his way around his pyrotechnics. What more could I want in a man?" He sighed dramatically, dreamily looking off into the distance. Fred took advantage of the opening and beaned him with another pillow. "Oi!"

This turned the next few minutes into a full blown pillow fight, which was only ended by an angry knock at the door.

"Well good morning, sleeping beauty." George beamed at Harry as he opened the door. There were dark circles underneath his eyes, despite how much he had been sleeping lately.

"Would it kill you to keep it down?"

"It might, haven't given it a try yet." Fred shrugged.

"Well how about you try it, or I'll hex you."

George patted his head. "Sure you will. Go back to bed."

"I mean it." Harry probably didn't even have his wand on him.

"We'll be quiet Harry." Fred soothed. "Relax, it'll do you good."

Harry grunted and walked back to his room.

"Something needs to be done about him." George said upon closing the door.

"Hermione said she'd talk to him."

"She can fix everything now?"

"She is his best mate." Fred replied, sitting down on his bed.

"Ron was his best mate." George said solemnly, saying the name that everyone had been avoiding.

"I know. But she was always the cool headed one of that lot." After all, she had practically babysat Ron and Harry for the last few years. How they managed to do anything without her was beyond him.

George nodded his agreement, plopping down beside Fred. "She sure is something."

Fred grinned. "You're telling me."

"So, when's your big date?"

"Uh, we haven't decided on anything yet. We were discussing it and then got distracted talking about other stuff."

"You are hopeless, you know that Freddy? You finally ask out your dream girl and you can't even pin down a date after she says yes."

"I'll figure something out." In fact, there were a couple of nice museums that he was thinking of taking her to. Not exactly his speed, but she'd certainly like them. "Why are you trying so hard to match me up lately, anyway? It's getting a little ridiculous, Georgie."

"I just want you to be happy." His brother replied, but the way he paused before responding gave him away.

"You make the same face when you lie that Ginny does."

"I do not."

"You're just denying it cause it looks better on her."

"This is the last time I try to do anything nice for you."

"Sure it is. Come on, what's been eating you lately? Since when do we keep secrets from each other?" Fred was starting to worry, George had gotten a bit secretive lately, and pushing him this hard to ask out Hermione was something his brother would never usually do. Even if Fred had been a bit of a pining loser about it.

George took a deep breath. "Well, I was going to wait to tell you until we were a bit more sure about it, but Seamus and me were talking about getting a place together. Just the two of us."

Fred felt the contents of his stomach turn to solid concrete, but he tried to not let it show. "That's great, Georgie, Mum will be happy to see at least one of us move out." He said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. He couldn't expect his twin to want to share a room with him forever, after all.

"Thanks Freddie. You're always welcome over, of course."

"Well I would hope so."

* * *

"Harry, I want to talk to you." Hermione turned on the light and sat at the edge of his bed.

"Good for you." Harry put a pillow over his head.

"None of that now." She chastised, pulling the pillow from his grasp.

"Can't anyone in this cursed place leave me alone?" He murmured, burying his face into the mattress.

"You couldn't be so lucky. It wouldn't kill you to have some genuine human interaction every once in a while."

"Ugh, you sound like Ginny." He groaned.

"She cares about you Harry, we all do. We just want to help."

"Like you have any room to talk, reading all day and not talking to anyone."

"I haven't been the best either, Harry, but this needs to stop, okay? Nothing is going to get better this way." She felt like a hypocrite, but one of them had to take the first steps or they were going to be lost in this funk forever. And while Hermione may not have been able to get better for herself, she could at least try for the people around her that she had left.

"Why bother?"

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life sleeping?"

"I don't see why not."

"Come on Harry, we at least have to try to live the lives we've fought for."

"I just want some rest, Hermione."

She sighed. "I know." She didn't know if he was still taking potions for the nightmares, but now didn't seem to be the time to ask. "But this sleeping all day isn't good for you. Will you just try to spend some time with me, please? I just want to talk."

"I know you just want to help, but this isn't your problem, okay? Just. Just go." He pleaded.

Harry still had that tendency to insist he could do everything himself. It was good to see at least that part of him was still intact, infuriating as it may be. "I'm not going anywhere. I haven't gone anywhere for the last seven years and I'm not going to start now."

He sighed. "You are worse than Ginny."

"It must be so hard, having people that care about you."

"Bugger off."

"I told you Harry, I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me."

"Then I'll make you." He threatened, groping around on the bedside table for his wand. "Hermione, what have you done with my wand?"

"I haven't seen it."

He sat up, glaring at her. "I swear Hermione, if you've taken it-"

"Harry, listen to yourself."

"You listen to yourself."

She took a deep breath. "Ron wouldn't want to see you like this."

"What makes you think you have any right to say that?" he accused.

"He was my friend too, Harry."

"Where were you when he was killed?"

Was he really going to do this right now?

"Helping the twins and Seamus. Harry, we've been through this before. " She knew he blamed her. She sometimes blamed herself as well. But would they have been any better off f she had made a different decision?

"So you saved your boyfriend but couldn't help our best mate."

"He's not my –""She paused, deciding that response wasn't helping. "It's not my fault Harry. It was an accident. You two were taking care of yourselves just fine." She never should have left their side.

"Obviously we weren't."

"I did what I thought was best." That was all she could really do, after all. She just hoped she could live with her choices.

"I'm going back to bed."

"Sleeping won't change what happened."

"You think you know everything."

"This is getting you nowhere and you know it."

"Where's my wand?"

"I don't know." She paused. "If you promise to try and stay awake, I'll help you look for it."

"Fine."

Ginny, as it turned out, had taken Harry's wand.

"I just didn't want him to hurt himself." She said timidly when Hermione asked her about it.

"It's okay Gin," Hermione reassured her. "I think it's time to give it back."

"I'll go get it." She nodded and scurried off.

"Why did I never notice how annoying she is?" Harry muttered.

"When did you become so awful? She's your girlfriend."

"Only because I don't have the heart to leave her."

"I think it's time to find a place of our own."

"I found a place actually. I'll be moving out next week."

Hermione was surprised. He had been doing something besides sleeping. "When were you planning on telling everyone?"

"As late as possible so you all didn't try and talk me out of it."

"We care about you, Harry. We're just trying to help."

"I know. It's suffocating. I just need some peace. I can't go more than five feet without someone feeling sorry for me in this place."

"Harry, I-" Hermione didn't have a good response to that one. Were they all being too pushy about his recovery?

"Don't."

Ginny walked timidly back into the living room. "Here's your wand Harry."

"Thank you Gin." She said for Harry, before he could say something rude.

Ginny nodded then left quickly. Hermione was certain she'd heard Harry complaining about her, but she could deal with that later. Right now, she had Harry awake.

He seemed to have other plans, however. "I'm going back to bed." He said as she turned to him, still trying to find the words to say.

"That wasn't part of the deal."

"I said I'd try." Harry said as he headed up the stairs, leaving Hermione feeling like a failure, and not for the first time that day. This would not do.

* * *

"He isn't being any nicer, but he is planning on moving out." Hermione said to Fred as they sat on the back porch, watching George help Ginny with some Quidditch moves. She was really shaping up to be a great seeker.

"I don't know if letting him live alone is a good idea either." Fred replied, watching Ginny make another amazing catch. She could give Harry a run for his money if she kept that up.

"I was thinking of convincing him to let me move in with him. He really shouldn't be alone right now."

"You can't spend your whole life taking care of him." He said, knowing full well that she would if she thought that was necessary, but a selfish part of him didn't want to let that happen.

"I don't intend to. But he does need a friend, and I'm all he's got." Hermione sighed. "He blames me for what happened." Of course he did.

"It wasn't your fault."

"I mean, I did have the choice. Harry and Ron seemed to be handling themselves fine, so I came to help you."

He tried not to think about that day a lot, but talking about it was probably good for the both of them. "If you hadn't shielded us from that explosion, I'm not sure what would have happened." Most of the battle was a blur in his head, but that moment stood out as the closest he had been to dying. There had just been too much going on at once.

"I'm sure the three of you would have been fine without me." She said softly.

"Thank you anyway." Fred said softly, and unsure of what to say, gently put his hand on top of hers.

She frowned, looking at his fingers. "Why are you doing this?"

"You're the smart one Hermione, you tell me."

"It's just that you never acted like this before."

"I guess I never had the chance." He said, which, admittedly wasn't true, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Did you want to?"

"Of course I did."

"But it would have been weird, asking out our little brother's best friend, right? I mean.." She paused, shaking her head. "I'm going for a walk. Care to join me?"

Fred shrugged. "Alright." Hopefully, it could only go up from here.

* * *

"I'm didn't mean what I said earlier." Hermione said after some time. "I just have a lot on my mind and-" She paused. This wasn't helping. "I'm sorry.

"Don't worry about it. It's been rough lately."

She nodded, still wishing she had kept her mouth shut earlier and let something good happen to her, for once. "Do you think Harry will ever be alright?" She asked, for lack of anything better to say.

"I don't know." He frowned. "Is that really what you want to talk about?"

"Not really." She admitted. "What would you like to talk about?" She really should have thought this through more carefully. Nothing good ever came of acting on a whim, but here they were, out in the middle of nowhere and unsure of what to talk about, despite not running out of topics the other day. This was unnecessarily difficult.

He shrugged. "You're the one that brought me out here. Is that where your master plan ends?"

She giggled. "Sadly, yes. But you can't tell me that there isn't anything going on in that head of yours." He always had something interesting to talk about, it seemed.

There was a bit of red in his cheeks that hadn't been there before. "Well, to be honest, you're the only thing on my mind right now."

Hermione blushed as well, looking down at her feet. "Why me?"

"Why not?"

"I-I'm not that interesting. All I've done lately is read." She tried her best to meet his gaze. She didn't know what to do when he smiled like that.

"Tell me about what you're reading."

That she could do. "I like Muggle stories about magical creatures."

"Why's that?"

"Well, to them they're just fairytales, so the stories are more interesting. Their myth is more magical than our reality." She had always loved fantasy books as a child, and even more so now that she was living a sort of fantasy of her own.

"What was it like growing up without magic?" He asked curiously.

"A lot more difficult, now that I know how easy it can be. We had electricity though. Television, phones, things like that. I'm sure your dad has told you about those."

"He has, a little. George and I tend to tune out when he gets going on tangents though."

"I've noticed."

"Could you ever go back to that?"

"I think about it sometimes, but I don't think so." She frowned. "It might have been easier on my parents if I had."

"I'm sorry." He paused. "If you found them again, could you reverse what you did?"

"No. There isn't a counterspell, and trust me, I've looked. I didn't even think I'd survive to regret it." She bit her lip. "They're safe though. That's what's important."

Fred nodded, not knowing how to respond. This time he did not try to hold her hand, even though she wished he would.

"I hate this. The war is over. Why can't we be happy?" Hermione broke the silence. "I am so awfully tired of this. It's like he won." It felt like every part of her life was branded with what she had lost and she just wanted to move on, to rebuild. Even if she wasn't sure what she wanted to build out of all this.

"He didn't win. But there were still casualties. It just seems to be what everyone is focused on right now."

"There's casualties in any war. Do you know what Muggles do after war?"

"No."

"In America, after World War Two, there was a boom in population that had never been seen before. They didn't spend their entire time mourning. That's what needs to happen."

"A boom in population?"

"No. Just more … celebration."

"Can I kiss you?"

"What?" Hermione replied, taken aback by his sudden request. "I mean, yes. Please" A second later, his lips were against hers.

"Is that the kind of celebration you're looking for?" he teased, his lips only inches but still too far away.

"It's a start." She murmured before pulling him in for another kiss.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed! Please be sure to review and tell me what you think!**

 **-Zen (and Sirius)**


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